Sunny Hostin‘s decision to become a federal prosecutor was an incredibly personal one.
During an appearance Monday onTamron Hall‘ssyndicated daytime talk show,Tamron Hall, theViewco-hostopened up about the incident that would ultimately forge her career path:witnessing her uncle get stabbedas a child growing up in the Bronx.
“It’s something I don’t talk about a lot, but I thought it was time for me to start talking about it,” she said. “When I was about 7, I saw my uncle stabbed in front of me. [He was] my father’s only brother and I adored him. He was the fun uncle.”
“Just the two of us were there,” she continued. “He was dating someone who turned out to be married, and her husband came in and attacked him. I remember as a child just trying to stop the bleeding, just being so traumatized, thinking, ‘Please Uncle Ed, don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.’ And we never talked about it as a family, ever.”
FormerTodayshow anchor Hall, whosesister Renate’s 2004 murderremainsunsolved, said she could relate.
“The same thing happened with my sister’s death — we didn’t talk about it,” she said. “But at some point in your life, as an adult, you saw and understood, as I did, the power in sharing that pain.”
“One thing about my uncle that I never quite got over — no one was prosecuted,” said Hostin, 51. “The police were not really interested, and I remember being in law school thinking, ‘I want to be a prosecutor. I don’t want to be a defense attorney. I want to get the guy that did that to my uncle.’ And as a journalist, I wanted to give voice to the voiceless. I wanted to tell those stories.”
Heidi Gutman/ABC
Hostin, who also hosts the new I.D. docuseriesTruth About Murder with Sunny Hostin, recentlyreflected on the tragedyin an interview with PEOPLE, admitting she felt “very, very helpless.”
While her uncle survived that initial attack, he died a few years later due to complications from the stabbing. The assailant was never punished.
“A lot of times, children are left out of the equation, especially in low-income communities,” Hostin said. “You don’t get taken to a therapist. It colored the way our family operated, it changed how my father operated.”
“One of the things that was pretty horrible for me was that my family never talked about it. Ever,” she added. “We moved out of my neighborhood. I left all of my friends. And then, on top of that, we never spoke about it.”
“I have made it my mission to talk about things,” she said. “When you go through trauma, it’s important to talk about it. And that’s what I’m doing.”
Tamron Hallairs weekdays (check local listings);The Viewairs weekdays (11 a.m. ET) on ABC;Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostinairs Tuesdays (10 p.m. ET) on Investigation Discovery.
source: people.com
